The StoryFurriarty is terrorizing London, and it's up to Purrrlock Holmes to stop him before he completes his plans and escapes! However, Purrrlock cannot do it alone and you, as a newly inducted Inspector at Scotland Pound, must help bust members of Furriarty's gang in order to help Purrrlock get closer to the bewhiskered baddie that's been bullying all of Baker Street.

Gameplayeach player in Purrrlock Holmes: Furriarty's Trail draws a hidden suspect card. Players take turns making guesses using a "clock" mechanism about their unknown suspect’s identity. The other players (who can see every suspect but their own) will tell you whether you've got a lead on your suspect; if not, it's a dead-end. Figure out enough leads to deduce the suspect's identity, and you get to snag a clue that leads to Furriarty. Each clue is labeled with a variable number of victory points. Every round, Furriarty pads his way closer to escape, putting tension on the players to guess — quickly! — to solve the case. If you can deduce enough suspects and collect enough paw print tokens, you may be able to overtake Furriarty before he scrams.Get ready, Inspector, as the game is officially afoot — or a-paw, if you will...

ComponentsThe game itself has a graphic novel feel to it. Being a lifelong comic reader, i enjoyed this art. I would have like to see them add names to all the secondary characters that you investigate. I like the little extra step of inserting the cat paws in the box.

ConclusionThis is a light deduction game. The theme seems focused on younger players but all comes together rather nicely, It moves fast and finishes in about a half hour. There are interesting decisions in the game when you are trying to guess your card. You are trying to win so you want to try to avoid one point tokens if you can, but at the same time, you can let furriarty escape. I feel that it was very difficult to get into this game playing it with two players. BGG recommends four players, and I won't play this with less than three. If you have kids younger than the suggested age of ten and they are gamers already, you should be able to play this game no problem. Nikky Hack on board game geek made a excellent flowchart card to help keep track of the turn procedure.